Down in the deluge

Photo for The Union by John Hart
The third of three storm with rain and wind took down trees into homes, knock down power and AT&T, and cable down, and blocked roads in the area. Grass Valley Police officer helping cleared the East Main Street of rocks, Sunday morning as water moved the rocks from the hillside near Fischer's Towing.

Photo for The Union by John Hart
The third of three storm with rain and wind took down trees into homes, knock down power and AT&T, and cable down, and blocked roads in the area. Power lines hanging above the pick up on La Barr Meadows Road,

Photo for The Union by John Hart
The third of three storm with rain and wind took down trees into homes, knock down power and AT&T, and cable down, and blocked roads in the area. Flooding on Hughes Road at East Main Street, Sunday morning as the Grass Valley Police closed part of the road for threes hours.

Photo for The Union by John Hart
The third of three storm with rain and wind took down trees into homes, knock down power and AT&T, and cable down, and blocked roads in the area. Employees of
Big A Rootbeer Drive In sweeping water out of the building Sunday morning as the water rushed down from Hughes Road.

Photo for The Union by John Hart
The third of three storm with rain and wind took down trees into homes, knock down power and AT&T, and cable down, and blocked roads in the area. Rocks in the roadway on East Main Street, Grass Valley, Sunday morning.

Photo for The Union by John Hart
The third of three storm with rain and wind took down trees into homes, knock down power and AT&T, and cable down, and blocked roads in the area. The Idaho-Maryland Road closed at Suttow Way, Grass Valley because the water of Wolf Creek over flowed onto the road, and reopen at 1pm Sunday afternoon.

Photo for The Union by John Hart
The third of three storm with rain and wind took down trees into homes, knock down power and AT&T, and cable down, and blocked roads in the area. A large pine tree took out the power pole and block the roadway, Sunday morning. The tree fell on La Barr Meadows at Grange Court.

Photo for The Union by John Hart
The third of three storm with rain and wind took down trees into homes, knock down power and AT&T, and cable down, and blocked roads in the area. Grass Valley fire cutting the down tree on Olympia Park Circle in back of the paper, Sunday morning as the tree blocked the roadway.

Photo for The Union by John Hart
The third of three storm with rain and wind took down trees into homes, knock down power and AT&T, and cable down, and blocked roads in the area. A large tree the fell on the parking area, took the railing out and backstop on the field, near the picnic area of Pioneer Park, Nevada City, Sunday morning.

Photo for The Union by John Hart
The third of three storm with rain and wind took down trees into homes, knock down power and AT&T, and cable down, and blocked roads in the area. Nevada City swimming pool filled up water from the storms at Pioneer Park.

Photo for The Union by John Hart
The third of three storm with rain and wind took down trees into homes, knock down power and AT&T, and cable down, and blocked roads in the area. Grass Valley Police officer helping cleared the East Main Street of rocks, Sunday morning as water moved the rocks from the hillside near Fischer's Towing.

Photo for The Union by John Hart
The third of three storm with rain and wind took down trees into homes, knock down power and AT&T, and cable down, and blocked roads in the area. Grass Valley Police officer helping cleared the East Main Street of rocks, Sunday morning as water moved the rocks from the hillside near Fischer's Towing.

Randy Schaffner — Rite Aid is the highest building in that center. Wow

Jessa Krissovich — This is what it looks like down there?

Cora Marie Ketcham — Guess I won’t be shopping over there today :/

Jennifer Machado —W O W!! that is crazy!

Jewelz Julia Pavan — wtf!!

Paul Graham — WOW, feel sorry for the stores and the owners of those cars.

Heather Hare — That’s amazing and not in a good way

Jamie Kirkham — Is that from today???

Sagan Smith Sutera — Holy moly!!!

Kelley Garitty — OMG! I guess I won’t be going into town!

Jason Robert Dillard — Well it was a lake back in the day

Pamela Tobin — Holy cow!!!!!!!

TheUnion.com">class="NormalParagraphStyle">TheUnion.com — With thanks to Martin Mortensen .... CA Hwy49 was closed this morning between Lake of the Pines and Alta Sierra in both directions due to a large oak tree that fell across the highway from all the rain and wind this morning. At my LOP recording station, a total of 8.67” of rain has fallen at my house since Wednesday. It is 9:45am on Sunday and it is still raining.

Pamela Tobin — Prayers for my hometown, and family and friends..everyone…have never seen this in the Glenbrook basin, sounds like storm is widespread throughout county, hope the storm stops !!

Amber Tubbs — Grew up there and never experienced anything like this. Wow....hope the water starts to recede.

Scott Reynolds — Waters are receding in penn valley hope gv is also

Terra Kosako — We had no power .... but we are just over the Nevada county line, our power coming from colgate ..... We are back on now, with the back of our house trying to flood ...... it is a bucket brigade!

Tammy Sumner — Guess I’m not going anywhere today. I’ve never seen water like that in this area.

Jason Robert Dillard — I do recall 97 El Niño being a pretty bad flooded winter. When deer creek went over its banks.

David Carchidi — Last time I remember rain like that was 1986 when I lived in Sacramento and my mom lived off Idaho Maryland Road in GV. American River crested and up in GV water was up to my moms front door...5-6 above level ground.

Kevin Flynn — I have never seen that!

Stephanie Costa — Omg!

Nancy J Monteiro — Crazy!

Leslie Honey — Holy Cows in heaven! Thinking of you guys!

Donna Ivey — I can’t believe this! I wouldn’t believe it if I didn’t see it!

Jim Kirstine — I took the day off with my parents during the ‘86 event. Drove all over GV and Auburn. American River crested well over ‘No-Hands Bridge’. Water backed up to within 10 feet of the top of Clemantine, on the FRONT side. Bear river was to the top of the Dog Bar bridge, Folsom lake looked like an angry ocean.

Best of luck to my home town. Stay safe!!

Debra Condict — I thought the lake was across and down the road? Anyone remember?

Dameon StClair — 1989 or 1990 had six feet of snow and record rains afterwords. Lots of flooding and land slides. Up in NC, three to four feet of snow in GV. That was the worst winter I went through.

Related Media

Saturating soil, flooding low-lying ground and knocking out power throughout western Nevada County, rainstorms hammered the Sierra Foothills Sunday morning.

Most of the damage occurred from 7 a.m. to noon, during which time the Nevada County Sheriff’s Office received more than 150 calls, most of which were weather related.

At about 5:30 a.m., a large tree fell across Highway 49 near the intersection of Carriage Drive, causing a six-car accident while striking a utility pole and causing a power outage, said Sgt. Matt Whiting of the California Highway Patrol.

No injuries were reported as a result of the accident, Whiting said, and one-way traffic was restored on the highway at 7 a.m., and the entire road was open by 10 a.m.

The Grass Valley Interagency Command also received a barrage of calls from 7 a.m. to noon, according to Brian York, a captain with Calfire.

“There was flooding due to culverts being clogged,” York said. “There was no one part of the community that was affected more than others, no particular section of the streets. It was across the board.”

Most of the calls related to flooding or trees down blocking roadways, damaging houses and propane tanks.

“The nature of the calls were not much different from other storms, but the volume of calls was larger,” York said.

Several power outages were reported throughout Nevada County Sunday, according to the Pacific Gas & Electric website.

About 5,500 PG&E customers were without power as of noon Sunday, said J.D. Guidi, spokesman for the utilities company. The number had dwindled by 5 p.m., as PG&E crews worked through the storm, said Joe Molica, another spokeman at PG&E.

At noon, two outages had occurred in proximity to Nevada City, affecting about 3,000 customers, Guidy said. By 5 p.m., 559 customers were without power.

Grass Valley has witnessed four separate outages, affecting 805 customers, during the height of the storm, Guidy said. As of press time, 259 customers were still without power. An outage in Penn Valley affected 182 customers, Molica said.

Power is expected to be restored to all customers by Monday evening, Molica said.

“We will be working through the night,” he said. “This was a really tough storm. It was the strongest of all three, but barring any access issues, everyone should be back online by tomorrow.”

The intensity of rain dissipated Sunday afternoon with scattered showers continuing through the afternoon into the evening.

Dry weather is expected to resume Monday morning, said Eric Kurth of the National Weather Service.

Flood Warning

A flood warning will be in effect until Monday at 10 a.m., despite the torrent of rain decreasing Sunday afternoon, Kurth said.

“The abundant rainfall and excessive precipitation has caused saturation in the groundwater and streams and creeks have excessive overflow,” said Kurth.

Water levels are expected to rise Monday, and rock and land slides are anticipated to continue over the next several days, Kurth said.

So far, no major landslides have been reported in western Nevada County, but Plumas County has witnessed a few, Kurth said.

In the eastern part of the county, the Truckee River rose to a level necessitating the establishment of an evacuation center.

Motorists are advised not to drive a vehicle into areas where water covers the roadway, said Vic Ferrera, director of the Office of Emergency Services in a news release. The water depth may be too great to allow the vehicle to pass.

Individuals should pay special attention to areas beneath recent burn scars, as they are susceptible to debris flow, the release states.

“A flood warning means flooding is occurring or is imminent. Most flood-related deaths occur in automobiles,” according to the National Weather Service. “Do not attempt to cross water-covered bridges, dips or low water crossings. Never try to cross a flowing stream, even a small one, on foot.”

Grass Valley Overflow

The Grass Valley Waste Water Treatment plant, which is prone to flooding during heavy precipitation events, once again could not manage the amount of water flowing through the facility and dumped untreated or partially treated wastewater into Wolf Creek, according to environmental health officials.

At 8:30 a.m., the treatment plant began to overflow, said Wesley Nicks of Nevada County Department of Environmental Health. Wastewater was discharged into Wolf Creek from the early morning until noon, Nicks said, when contractors were able to divert the Newmont Mine waterway away from the treatment plant, reducing the flow going into the plant.

Residents along Wolf Creek were notified of the overflow and were advised not to go near the creek as wastewater represents a significant human health hazard, Nicks said.